Bringing a car to Germany for a few months only

i plan on visiting my relatives in ketsch am rhein for approx 4 months, then returning to my home in waterloo ontario canada.as long as i have a valid drivers license and vehicle insurance and of course a valid plate on my truck, nothing further should be required i can ship my 2006 f150ford pickup round trip toronto to bremerhafen for $3200 cnd. as far as my choice of vehicle thats not negotiable(don' like cars also 6' 7" tall )and care very lttle about the operating costs while there. truck is lowered has handling kit, big baer brake kit,and the speed limiter is long gone I will not be leaving the vehicle in germany

My inquires have so indicated i need not modify the truck it passes emmisions and is safety certified here nothing else is required operate in germany for the length of my stay as long as my stay does not exceed 12 months. Can anyone else provide further information on this matter

Possability that you may have to pay a tax on bringing it in to the country that i presume you could claim back when leaving after 4 months.Tip is keep all the paperwork you get as Germans really need this

I would check up on lighting regulations, as far as i'm aware you have to ' E ' mark your headlight, tail lights etc

Bring some petrol with you!

No kidding. The size of their gas tanks, it'll be about 180 loonies just to fill the beast. Narrow European streets and roads should also be fun, parking a dream.

Suggest you take it off the road in Canada for a while, use the money saved by doing that and by not shipping to either pick up a car on the cheap here and sell it on leaving, or arrange a short-term lease / rental.

Lets start with the practical.

1) The sea voyage is not going to do your truck any favors. Salt water can be hell. Best to pick up something used here on the cheap.

2) Also, when I shipped my car over (11 years ago) I was supposed to be able to pick it up about three weeks later and actually picked it up over two months later.

3) Don't be a fool, the hassle for just 4 months isn't worth it.

The OP is millionaire and does not care about operation costs. I do not get why the OP does not hire somebody who actually knows about that stuff instead of asking in a public forum full of non-millionaires who will tell you that it is a bad idea.

Hmm well if he's a millionare then I have a deal, I will sell you my husband's F150 then you won't have to ship yours over, then when you leave i'll buy it back, but as it will be 3rd hand by then it would have to be really cheap.

my shipper insures me that it will take 15 days to land the vehicle in bremerhafen . it will not be exposed to sea spray will be in a container, and i have asked the professionals just want verify they are not feeding me any bull sh!t so to speak,(thats why i am asking questions in a public forum), i was led to believe, because the truck is not being left there,it did not have to be federalized, actually they advise vehicle requires no inspection by german authorities whatsoever because it is not staying there (just passing thru so to speak)
I have just returned from germany and tried the car rental thing what a disaster (nothing short of renting some large transit van fits me comfortably 6'7") my truck is all set up for me and the last i want is the stress of a vehicle i have to adapt to .en quired about longer term rental /lease cost is not that much cheaper than my shipping costs have no issues with my insurance company

On my last trip i did not find parking that big an issue at the places that i want to visit and revisit now and i was looking at it from the aspect of bringing my truck over Fuel costs me 180 bucks just about now to fill it here even if the cost is double its not that big a deal my wife and i will spend more than 3/4s of the time camping out of the truck so the truck is transportation and accommodation's
as far as i can determine the salt spray thing is a bit of a myth if you go with professional reputable shipping company

bob,

be smart dont bring your truck. There are PLENTY of cars to fit 7 footers here. your tuck WILL take way longer to get here than 2 weeks. if you want to spend 3200 bucks on the transfer just to speed on the Autobahn, why not juts rent a super slick sports car and have some real fun... or just use a bike to get around like the rest of Germany? And to the advice about the roads here... your f150 is WAY to big. Most streets in Germany are not mad for anything bigger than a sedan. You will leave Germany with many dings and scratches. Also as said with the gas... its rough. 75 Euros just to fill up my little 15 gallon tank. like i said be smart. and one other thing YOU WILL stick out like a big red sore thumb. There are NO trucks here. Well i have seen one Toyota 4x4 in 3 months. Just my 7 cents.

now thats more constructive advice and i thank you for that. our bicycles are actually in the back of the truck with our camping gear are you saying scratches as in intentional damage or because the truck is bigger. on my last trip, i have only been back home 4 weeks now, i found almost all the people i encountered very mined full and respectful of other peoples property(now italy THAT was A whole other story ). the speeding thing is really not what this is about. in my recent travels i noticed quite a few ford pickups most of my travel will be on the autobahns found them to be more spacious and better maintained than our poor excuse of a hiway the 401
I have connections to rent a higher end tent trailer while i visit, although the truck is equipped with a pop up tent in the bed my wife andi are considering the offer on the tent trailer

Four months is 120 days. Assuming you could actually get your truck over here in time for your stay, the shipping costs would end up being $27/day right off the bat.

The huge fuel cost has been discussed at length ... you have no idea. How are you set for insurance? Clearly, you'll have to buy something supplemental for your driving time here ... and that will not be cheap.

The aforementioned scratches come from the fact that trying to navigate an F-150 around european streets and into parking garages is like trying to get Pavarotti into a wetsuit.

You can rent bare-bones car from Buchbinder or similar place for €29/day ... and I can't imagine you wouldn't be able to find a good deal on a diesel van of some sort that would fit your needs. Also, have you factored in the cost of picking up and dropping the truck off, versus just doing everything at the airport?

Persoanlly, I think it's a completely nutty idea. It's a bit like people with mobile homes who "save" all that money lugging all their junk around in the right lane at 55MPH and staying in cheap RV parks when it would have been cheaper to have not bought the thing in the first place, and used a lot less money to fly first class, stay in nice hotels and toss in the car keys when finished.

Actually while driving an F150 is a little difficult in some places, most of the time it isn't a problem, as I said in an earlier post, my husband has one & drives it around Heidelberg which has some pretty small roads, the only real problems are parking sometimes but it's not really an issue. As we have a military base here there are a lot of pick up trucks and quite a few larger than an F150. As for dings I find Germans to be pretty considerate when getting in and out of their cars, more so than in the US or UK.

Edit: Alos just noticed you will be going to ketsch which is pretty close to Heidelberg, so you will NOT stick out at all, parking garages can be a problem so I would recommend avoiding them, juts means you have to walk a little further and as you are Canadian and not American that probably isn't a problem..._{so sorry I couldn't resist, to all the Americans who don't feel the need to drive 10 feet instead of walking...my apologies}

I'm an inch shorter and I can assure you that most cars will fit adequately for the distances you will have to drive (if someone has to sit behind you then you may have problems) My advice would be to rent a van or similar (many here rent them out to save cash when they are not in use) and spend the money saved on petrol to some really cool places. A vehicle that size will give you more heartache than being mistaken for a vampire by enraged villagers, and on a holiday you don't need the hassle.

Expaticus I have an idea have only been back home from germany for a little over 4 weeks .It cost me between 65 and 100 euros to stay at the achat series of hotels nice places i might add so that more than covers my 27 dollar a day shipping costs
spent 5 weeks traveling around Germany Switzerland in a rented audi tt convertible a miserable car i might add much prefer my truck lets forget about the navigation thing yes i understand about the parking garages my trip will consist primarily of traveling the autobahns and hitting the camping areas most of which i have allready checked out plenty of parking i had no trouble finding plenty of parking on the side streets of heidelberg spent a great deal of time there so you got to walk a little bit no biggie

My truck holds 95 ltrs of fuel at the current cost here in waterloo Ontario where i live thats 95x$1.39per ltr or $133 cnd gas in hockenheim at the adli gas bar was 1.41 euros per ltr or 134 euros you can not take the money exchange into consideration thats like me complaining when i went to the states when our canadian dollar was only worth 65 cents

the additional insurance cost for the 120days has allready been checked and verified at $167 ( i pay 179 bucks a month to keep my street legal sandrail on the road in the summer )

dropping off in toronto is only 35 minutes 15 day delivery is guaranteed which just leaves getting from frankfurt to bremerhafen (i won't be using the train)

If you can find car insurance with a C$167 supplement to ship a vehicle internationally and drive it on foreign roads then you have a better insurance company than I.

Knock yourself out.

That said, I'd still suggest you strongly avoid having any accidents, and ensure you don't face-rake entire lines of parked cars with those big ol' mirrors and/or running boards

Expaticus Economical Mutual been with them for 30 years sorry no running boards or big dorky mirrors it's an f150 lightening

A few years ago I saw an RV on the autobahn (A7) with California license plates and a couple Harleys on a trailer behind it (Harleys also had California plates). Something I had never seen before - American plates on a car over here (not counting people who put them in windows of their German plated cars). Never understood it myself, thought it would have been cheaper to just rent an RV rather than ship one here, but I have no idea what their story was or how long they were traveling around with it.

There are literally thousands of American-plate cars in Germany with soldiers.

leky is right, it's perfectly possible to drive a F150 here. There are at least 3 in my neighborhood, plus a Dodge Ram
Unless you hit any old town parts built before, oh, 1950 or so. That is like half of the city space though...

Aside from a few that I've seen around military/state department areas clearly waiting for their "HK", "AF" or "AD" plates, they are unusual.

I've seen a few Connecticut plates ... and my theory is that these are very wealthy types with second homes in Switzerland up visiting in Germany.

Depends on the timing. Big rotations flush in hundreds of new cars at a time every now and then ;-)

Too lazy to actually look outside, but i'd guess at least 20% of all American cars around here do not have AF/AD/HK plates, same as not all military police vehicles having IF or X plates. Btw, since 2005, they also hand out German plates for US vehicles (local, not AD/HK).

we have looked into the rv thing cost is close to on par with bringing our own truck my wife will be doing some of the driving and she wants nothing to do with wielding a motor home down the A6 now the rv will seriously cripple you with getting through some of the smaller places again i need to repeat i travelled there for 5 weeks bearing in mind that we were considering bringing the truck here i drive close to 75000 kms a year and to be quite frank and honest i did not find things that tight you want to try our main drag on a friday night now thats tight and remember i have no intention of tripsing down tiny little side streets

have a cousin who has a large family (5 kids)they are in kontanz at the bodensee he has a renualt transit (very large minivan of course i consider our chrysler minivans here little pisscutters )which i drove its physically bigger than my F150 my comment NO SWEAT!

kato thats kinda what i observed when i was there even saw a coupla of H1 civilian hummers flitting around (now thats one big mother_______ vehicle )

You seem to have his heart set on bringing your truck so no point in trying to discourage you.

Do tell us how you make out in the end.

most assuredly Eleanor i will keep you folks apprised of how things turned out .just got a confirmation from the shipping company late this afternoon truck is being loaded aug 1st . so i am going to book our flight for 16 days later. ketsch am rhein here i come, wish i could have put this together sooner, would have enjoyed taking in the F1 race at hockenheim .we stayed at the achat hotel in hockenheim on our last visit. could hear the race cars at the track from our hotel room. my family's home in ketsch, is on the hockenheimer straße only about 6 km from front gate of he track

If you have problems driving something the size of a F150 around Germany (ignoring obvious exception like historic city centers with tiny roads) you shouldn't be driving at all.

It is really NOT worth it just for a few months. My FJ truck is going to take more than 2 months to get here, and the paperwork is a REAL nightmare. I'm already hoping it doesn't pass customs so that I can send it back home and buy a L.R. Defender, heh heh heh.

Just get a rental -- it would probably be cheaper, and surely less headache!

There is a little known fact about Buchbinder, that needs to be taken into consideration here. They are a national company and have a different sort of deal as far as insurance and possible police work (e.g. in case of theft) is concerned. Therefore, you HAVE to provide them with an address in Germany. There are, apparently, some hotels they work with and these hotels help their guests with the address bit, but if you are a tourist renting from them, you might have problems, or not be able to rent at all.

just for reference, just talked to avis at the frankfurt airport . As i often rent vehicles i get a fairly decent rate with them, to rent a smartcar for 4 WEEKS would cost us 865 euros, that price does not include any insurance as this covered on my gold mastercard travel card. so lets see 865x1.51cnd=1306.15cnd for 4 WEEKS i am staying four months so 1306x4=5224.6 cnd my quoted shipping cost for my truck is 3200cndthis includes the marine insurance and the additional cost saving because we will be camping out of our truck for a large portion of our stay. it cost me 1986euros or 2998cnd for four weeks for the audi tt convertible i had on our recent trip (and we flat hated the car ) just thought i throw these facts in for the curious amongst you

Just curious here,question to the forum moderators did somebody delete some posts in this thread and if so why?

I think it was the tangent which included the controlled substance reference

Why on earth would you rent a TT for a four week holiday? That's like renting a new beetle if you plan to move stuff around. It's a roadster and good for what it is, it's not meant to travel in it. A little sportscar to cruise around, with no space whatsoever. Mind you that a TT is pretty expensive to rent as well. There are tons of better choices. Did the guy at the counter drool and did he have € signs in his eyes talking you into the TT?

How can you stay in Germany for 4 months as a tourist? I know it is off topic, just out of curiosity.

Don't listen to 'em Bob. You keep saying that you've done the math. They keep ignoring you. I suspect they are just jealous that someone doesn't want to want to spend 5K on the convenience of of an itty bitty rental car and has figured out how not to have to do that. My father in law used to deliver cars from Bremerhafen to servicemen here in Germany. He says you should be in the clear since you are definetly not staying and not leaving the truck here. Good Luck.

expaticus copy that about the controlled substance tangent rented the tt to get sporty car thing out of my system really wasn't hauling anything around as far as 4months as a tourist in germany have a large family there want to spend quailty time with them we enjoy camping am retired have a good pension most of all i really enjoy germany

and back to the audi tt it was junk as far as i am concerned ( no scratch that wouldn't want to enrage any audi lovers ) lets just leave at it didn't suit us

This is all rhetorical now anyway like i said in a previous post truck is being loaded aug 1st

OK, maybe I was not clear enough. A tourist in Germany can stay up to 90 days.

The pesky AufenthG wields its head...

or more precisely only 90 days within 180 in the whole of the Schengen area.

That opens another question. Can you drive around with a foreign non EU registered car that long regardless your status? For example if you're a student? Even if you're German and move into the neighbouring city you have to re-register your car pretty much instantaneously - 2 or 3 months are tolerated i think. My cousin moved to Frankfurt and kept his old plate for half a year. Hefty fine.

Bob, i don't think people here want to spoil your holiday. OK, you did the math and it works out.
But do you know about the 90 day tourist VISA regulation?

but if 31or 32 days of the stay are spent in other countries there is no problem we have in mind some side trips to other countries we are both big autocross fans we intend to hit as many autocross races as we can in neighboring countries the i need to be back at home on the 8th of nov for a personal matter so we are not looking at a full 4 months

But as OG pointed out if those countries are still part of the Schengen area, then it's still only 90 days. As an aside doesn't your keyboard have commas and capitals?

As long as all of those days are spent in non-Schengen countries, which these days is pretty limited within the EU and neighboring states (for now, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Cyprus, and Romania have not implemented Schengen; also UK and Ireland).

I will certainly look into the 90 day thing . Yea the comma and capital thing get lazy that way sometimes

As far as those countries are not in Schengen there is no problem. But once you spent 90 days in the Schengen area you will have to leave Schengen and wait another 90 days to come back. At least that's what I know.

I will certainly look into the 90 day thing . Yea the comma and capital thing get lazy that way sometimes sorry double clicked this one, by Schengen you mean countries of the eu

Most (but not all) of the countries of the EU, and some outside the EU.

Wikipedia: Schengen Agreement

Maekelborger thank you for the link. This is a bit of a glisch but nothing that can't be over come like i said wish i would have known about this website sooner

Holders of blue Canadian Travel Documents (Geneva Convention on the status of refugees of 28 July, 1951) do not need a visa for transit and/or short term stay (tourism, business, visitor)

The above is an excerpt from canadian german consulate website .I possess this document, also just called the consulate in toronto ,advised them that i returned from germany on the 30th of may and that i plan to return on or about the 16th,17th,18th of august .They have no issues with that whatsoever if you do the math that means have have only been home 78or 80 days something like that
Also asked about my truck no issues as long as i do not take up permanent residence,try to sell, or scrap out my truck. Asked about the potential of staying maybe a 107or 108 days did seem to rev them up to much either

Bob, just to put things to rights, if you ship into Rotterdam it will take 2 days off the shipping to Bremerhaven. You should be able to get insurance on your vehicle through an embassy plan or your insurance may offer short term out of the country rates. I used these guys while in Europe http://www.jannetteintl.com You will have to buy a green card from ADAC for your vehicle that covers the other driver in case of accidents (I'm sure someone else can provide more info on the green card).

I drove a California registered X5 here for 2 years on CA plates with the insurance and a green card with no problems. It took 3 weeks to get it from California to Rotterdam (in a container) and only 10 days from Belgium to Newark on a RORO, you can probably pick it up from Halifax though!

Hope that helps. PM me with any questions.

Seeing this has reminded me of something that you should check with your insurance. I believe if your car is scrapped, which should you have a serious accident it could be, you could have to pay import taxes and Mwst (sales tax)! I know it sounds bizarre but this could happen so make sure your insurance covers this possibility.

I believe thats possible dependent upon the country. I had one car stolen in Poland and then had to replace it, they mentioned that there could have been a small fee (equivalent of coupe hundred euro) if it had been totaled.